CARS are getting bigger. Motorists worldwide have for years been abandoning four-door saloons in favour of bulkier SUVS. Carmakers have become bigger, too. Four car firms now make around 10m vehicles a year in order to reap economies of scale, particularly in the mass-market bit of the business where profit margins can be painfully thin. Many executives also believe that size is the only protection against the technologi-cal upheaval sweeping the industry. But bulking up fast is easier said than done. Lots of different constituents have to be won over. And most car bosses are still reticent about taking the plunge on mergers because many have been catastrophes. Daimler's acquisition of Chrysler in 1998, for example, was a notable disaster. The list of past crashes is lengthy. Indeed, one recent deal-General Motors' sale of Opel, its European arm, to France's PSA Group for €1.3bn ($1.4bn)-seems to go directly against the imperative to bulk up.
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